The South Beach Diet book became extremely successful when the diet book with the obvious name was published and picked up with rapid succession among a dedicated inner circle. Each with dieting success stories to brag about, the South Beach Diet book, authored by Doctor Arthur Agatston, The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss, is still growing in readership, but The South Beach Diet phase one continues to confuse readers.

The South Beach Diet phase one is designed to be the shortest of all phases of the diet, lasting for a fourteen day period. It was created to be intense, kick-start your body and your mindset about eating from that now on. The opposite to readers' thinking and one of the harder to understand parts to Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet, you do not have to limit yourself only eating low carb foods.

In a nut-shell, Phase 1 instills in you the thinking to: rid yourself of bad carbs that are not providing anything nutritionally for yourself, substitute the bad carbs that are overwhelming in quantity in most American diets with large amounts of protein, good fats and low glycemic index (G.I.) carbs that entertain your hunger and balances your blood sugar.

Foods that cause you more harm than benefit: fruit, candy, cereal, potatoes, grains, etc. all are to be eliminated, or the dieter must wean themselves off of during The South Beach Diet phase one. A safe bet, if you should have any difficulty, is to ingest all the salad, greens, and (most) vegetables you desire, as they are right in line for dietary benefit.

It is during this stage that Dr. Agatston believes that your body's resistance to insulin will go down, thus depending on your body weight and current health, you may lose 7 to 8 pounds initially, initially in the first 2 weeks alone, as your body begins to shed extra body weight.

The major goal of The South Beach Diet phase one two fold: to test and discipline you into a routine that you stick with that keeps you free from hunger and to lay the groundwork for a frame of mind that ensures you get rid of the bad foods and move towards the food that sheds pounds, deliver energy and improve your quality of life.